Merry Christmas to you all, stay safe over the holidays

We had our last two gatherings for the year this month and it was great to see all the ladies embrace the festive spirit.

We had some great nibbles on offer and plenty of show and tell - Both seasonal and of the UFO variety.


We received our last Honour blocks to complete with a definite Due By Date provided - 19th of April.  This is when the local RSL would like to display the quilts along with a additional display on ANZAC day - 25th of April.   So along with the Salinda/Nearly Insane blocks and any other work the ladies are currently completing, the holidays are set to be a very busy couple of weeks.

It was wonderful to see a great variety of Show and Tell this month.


Thank you ladies for bringing along your work for us to see, it is very inspiring to us all and a pleasure to see every month.


  






I've posted more photos on both our Facebook and Flikr sites - grab a cuppa and take a look at what we've been up to over the years.

The festive season is now upon us.... God Jul, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Nollaig Shona Dhuit, Merry Christmas to you all

The year is rapidly drawing to a close and we are getting busier than ever.  Those of us with children at home find ourselves looking for gaps in our calendar to get that last minute Christmas sewing finished.   Between dealing with the busy end of year school calendar of concerts, presentations and sourcing school books for next year and the endless running out to the shops for last minute gifts, it's easy to forget that this time of year is about spending quality time with loved ones, not running around getting too exhausted to enjoy your time together.

This time of year is also a chance to reflect on the year we have had, our achievements, our losses and our gains.   This year at Kilmore Quilters we've experienced a little of everything.  Our membership has grown, our workshops and classes have given us new insights and experiences and taught us some wonderful new skills to add to our repertoire of knowledge.  Some of us have found a new love for particular techniques and styles of quilting, while others are happy to keep experimenting or stay with a style or technique they enjoy.  We've lost cherished members and some have experience the painful loss of family members this year, while others have experienced illness, however through it all we have found plenty of love and support from those around us.

We've experienced a year filled with wonderful gatherings, productive sit n sews, interesting classes with generous teachers, great workshops delivered by our very own members, all in all contributing to a fulfilling and memorable year.

Our last gatherings for the year are Wednesday 10th of December and Tuesday 16th of December.

Merry Christmas, may your festive season bring you love and happiness.

We created bags for the nurses in Fiji

We hosted Vic Quilters Summer Gathering

Jane taught us fabric weaving

The ladies doing the Dutch Treat Quilt finally finished their quilts

Andrea taught us her bow tie technique at the retreat

Sergei joined us at the retreat and made quite a pest of himself

Neil Chisholm taught the ladies some quilting techniques

Dellareece won  her first prize at the Vic Quilters Exhibition

Karin and Annika taught us how to create a One Block Wonder quilt

Joan won the mug rug challenge at our Quilt In

Linda Steele taught the ladies Crazy Patchwork

And throughout the year the ladies have been working hard on their Nearly Insane and Honour Quilts

The year is drawing to a close......

Our quilting year is rapidly drawing to a close.  It doesn't mean we stop sewing, for a few of us life gets frantic now preparing for Christmas, finishing off those crafty presents and even looking forward to the end of the school year !?!

A group of our ladies recently attended our last workshop for the year which was conduct by Linda Steele .  Linda is an award winning Quilter based here in Victoria.  She taught our ladies how to create a Crazy Quilting journal cover.   I am sure the skills taught by Linda will be re-utilised in several creations to come from our ladies.

This month our Committee announced the theme for our 2015 Quilt Show - our theme is “Colours of War”, commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC landings.  Once again we will have a Challenge based on our theme - with the size to be a maximum of one square metre consisting of 3 layers quilted together.

The Committee have also been busy finalising our list of workshops for next year and will be trialling a new Sit n Sew with extended times to cater for all members being 10am - 10pm.

Our first workshop for the new year will be: Lizzy Allen, Quilt First ,Colour Me Later workshop on 21st March, 2015  members interested in attending this workshop should contact Jenny as soon as possible.

Our calendar for 2015 will be available in the coming months, as a reminder of what we have coming up this month: 

Night Gathering : Wednesday, 19th at 7pm

Sit n Sew: Friday 21st at 6pm

Day Gathering : Tuesday, 25th at 9am

Also a Victorian Quilter's Exhibition of Contemporary Art quilts started on Thursday:

ONE STEP FURTHER EXHIBITION 2014
Where: Whitehorse Art Space, Box Hill Town Hall, Box Hill
Enquiries: www.victorianquilters.org.au

When: 13th November - 20th December 2014

And the winner is...

Congratulations to the lucky winner of our 2014 Quilt-In Raffle Quilt, Lynn Haines of Nagambie.
Lynn was thrilled to receive a phone call on Saturday to be told she had won the William Morris quilt donated our vice-president.
Lynn had said to her friend that if there was ONE raffle she would like to win it would be this one.
Next year we will have two bites at the raffle cherry in October with a traditional applique and a more modern quilt on offer.

Our Quilt In was a wonderful success

Our Quilt In was a wonderful success with over 80 ladies in attendance.  We managed to raise a good amount of money for the Victorian Cancer Council.

The guest speakers were very well received with wonderful presentations from both of them with intriguing show and tell from both speakers.  As a result it will be interesting to see if our members dip their toes into Modern Quilt techniques and  try experimenting with a variety of ethnic fabrics.

Our raffle quilt proved to be very popular with plenty of tickets sold.

The traders did very well with plenty of interest in their stock.










Our Mug Rug challenge created plenty of interest, there were plenty of creative entries making the choice hard for our viewers.  Our first and second place winners demonstrated the variety in entries.

Joan won with this wonderful mug rug

Fay came Second with a modern entry

As usual our morning and afternoon tea went down a treat with all in attendance.

Thank you to the committee for the wonderful efforts of the committee prior to the Quilt In and on the day of the Quilt In.  Thank you also to all the help the committee received from the members in set up and on the day it was very much appreciated.

For more photos from the Quilt In have a look at our Facebook page and our Flikr site.

Kilmore Quilters Inc Biennial Quilt In - Saturday October the 11th

This coming Saturday is our Biennial Quilt In.   All the proceeds from this Quilt In will be donated to the Australia's Biggest Morning Tea - Cancer Council Victoria

Saturday the 11th of October 10am - 4pm  

Kilmore Memorial Hall, Sydney Street, Kilmore

Plenty of parking behind the Hall & Library

Entry is only $5:00 per person.  Your entry will include delicious, homemade morning and afternoon tea.

Bring along your hand-sewing, stitching, knitting or crocheting, your coffee mug and lunch.   
We will have a wonderful Michelle Hill Designed quilt, sewn and donated by Wendy to be raffled, 

There will also be door prizes, two guest speakers, plenty of Show and Tell and three traders.

The Village Patch, Maldon; ph: 54752391
Annas Mobile Patchwork Shop, Taggerty (Jennifer Rooney); 0435736933 and
Stitch This, Nagambie. Ph 0499995380

At every Quilt In and Quilt Show we offer our members a challenge.  For this Quilt In their challenge has been to create an A4 sized Mug Rug.  It has taken a little persuasion and encouragement, which has in turn offered our committee a challenge.  However, we are hopeful that we will have at least 20 or so for our guests to vote on.

Our Challenge at the last Quilt In was "Ten" in celebration our our Ten year anniversary

Our speakers this year come from two very differing backgrounds:

Deb from Havally, Frankston, Deb is a textile designer who is passionate about ethnic traditional textile design and preserving the traditional methods and traditions.  

We also have Kim Simpson from the Modern Quilt Guild, Kim will be talking to us about Modern Quilts - what defines a modern quilt.  

Both of our speakers will be bringing along samples to show us.

We hope to have a day filled with laughter, interesting insights and stories from our speakers and some wonderful show and tell, with a little shopping on the side.

To see photos from our last Quilt In have a look at our Flikr site.

Blink and the month has gone!

I must of blinked, because September has almost come and gone, before we know it Christmas will be upon us!

This month we had the wonderful Mr Neil Chisholm come and give a group of our ladies a class in appliqué and quilting.  The ladies had a wonderful day with him, so much so they are keen to have him back in the future.

We've also just had our night and day gathering during which we got to see the wonderful progress that Kerrie has made on her One Block Wonder Quilt.  I've seen photos of the progress made on a couple of the others, can't wait to see them all finished.

Joan also brought along her Bow Tie quilt to show us which she had started at our retreat in May.

And Liz showed off her wonderful Butterfly Quilt which has now been finished, she is thinking of hand quilting this one.

Next month we have our Quilt In on Saturday the 11th of October from 10am - 4pm at the Kilmore Memorial Hall on Sydney Street in Kilmore. Entry is only $5, we'll have plenty of door prizes, a wonderful quilt to be raffled, show and tell, 3 traders and two very interesting guest speakers, we hope to see plenty of people come along with their hand sewing, knitting or other handcrafts for a wonderful day out.

Upcoming Quilt In - Saturday 11th October

Preparations are well under way for our upcoming Quilt In to be held on

Saturday the 11th of October 10am - 4pm

Kilmore Memorial Hall, Sydney Street, Kilmore

$5 entry - proceeds go to Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

 As you read this, you may be asking yourself - What is a Quilt In?

A Quilt In is an biennial event in which we raise money for Charity.  In our case the charity we raise money for is the Cancer Council of Victoria.

On the day we ask our members and their friends and any other quilters to come along with their hand sewing, knitting or any other handwork you have on the go and join us for the day.  

This year we have two guest speakers - Deb from Havally, Frankston, Deb is a textile designer who is passionate about ethnic traditional textile design and preserving the traditional methods and traditions.  We also have Kim Simpson from the Modern Quilt Guild, Kim will be talking to us about Modern Quilts - what defines a modern quilt.  Both of our speakers will be bringing along samples to show us.


We will also be raffling a quilt kindly donated by one of our members along with door prizes, show and tell and our "Mug Rug" challenge for you to vote on.  

We have three traders who will have their wares available for sale.  

The Village Patch, Maldon; ph: 54752391
Annas Mobile Patchwork Shop, Taggerty (Jennifer Rooney); 0435736933 and
Stitch This, Nagambie. Ph 0499995380

All Traders will bring a variety of goods, but if there was something specific you are after, then feel free to contact them.

We ask that attendees bring their own lunch and mug, however a delicious morning tea and afternoon tea will be provided by our wonderful ladies.

Busy, Busy August

We've had a busy month.
The committee have been putting the final touches to organising our October Quilt In.  
Although our evening gathering for August was down on numbers it was great to see a couple of members we hadn't seen in a while.   Great progress is being made by the Salinda Girls on their quilt blocks along with the progress on our latest group project.

This month there were even a few finished quilts at show and tell.

While other ladies were still working on their hexagons both large and small.

We had a Trade Table sewing day although low on numbers in attendance the ladies had a great day and managed to get over 60 items made which included bags, tool wraps, bowl holders, oven mitts and plenty of pin cushions.  Some of the ladies even took items home to finish off.

Our One Block Wonder workshop proved very popular.  The ladies were taught how to cut and construct the blocks and were given plenty of ideas on how go about creating their finished quilts.
The range of fabrics they brought along were amazing and the blocks they created were wonderful.  We are looking forward to seeing the finished quilts over the coming months.


For more photos from our workshop check out our Flikr site.

Almost August ... where has the time gone?

Wow.... July has flown by.... it has been bitterly cold and foggy in July.  But despite the cold the ladies ventured out and were treated with some Christmas yummies at our gatherings to celebrate Christmas in July.

It was great to see the great turnouts at the gatherings in July despite the cold and the ladies have continued to churn out some great work, with fantastic progress on group projects.

Our committee is making great progress on organising our October Quilt In with three traders locked in.   They hope to have the speakers locked in shortly. The challenge has been received with great enthusiasm so we hope to see a wall of mug rugs to vote on.   So watch this space for more information.

Coming up in August we have:

Trade Table Sewing Day : Sunday 17th at 10am    

Night Gathering : Wednesday, 20th at 7pm

Karin  & Annika  - One Block Wonder : Saturday 23rd at  9:30am 
(Class is full)

Day Gathering : Tuesday, 26th at 9am

Congratulations to Maree and Dellareece

Congratulations to all of our members who entered a quilt or quilts into the Vic Quilters Show at Jeff's shed this week, it was great to see the quilts by Kilmore Quilters in the show, we were well represented in a number of styles. 
A special congratulations to Maree for her win in the Miniature quilts section

Dellareece's Rainbow Stars

 and Dellareece for her first ever prize, her quilt was in the secondary school section.

For more pictures of quilts entered by our members in the show click here to have a look at our facebook page.

Almost the end of June already !

It's almost the end of June, we are at our half way point of the year, it is the darkest and coldest time of year for us and it's time for the Melbourne Craft and Quilt fair !   A few of our members will be exhibiting quilts at the show this year... good luck to those ladies who have entered their quilts for judging.

Our group has been very busy so far this year.  We've had several exciting workshops from which we've seen some wonderful work, we've had a fantastic retreat which was very much enjoyed by those who attended.

Some of the ladies were very productive at the retreat as we saw at our last gathering as they took the opportunity to show of their finished work.

Kris's log cabin quilt

Rhonda's scrappy jungle quilt

Alisons bow tie quilt

One of the ladies even finished her Bow tie quilt, which was the block we were taught at the retreat.

While many of us will be doing this one by machine there are some who will be doing it by hand.

This month a small group of ladies attended a workshop held by one of our members in which they learnt the art of fabric weaving.



I was told that this was one of the quieter workshops we've held as there was a lot of concentration required for this technique.

This is a wonderful way to use up some of your stash or the perfect excuse to shop for more fabrics.  




For more photos from our gatherings,workshops, events or even the retreat grab a cuppa and browse through our flikr site.

Retreat 2014

This May we had a wonderful weekend away at the Alpine Ash Retreat in Toolangi. 

37 women from our group attended the retreat over a period of four days. This was the first time we had been to Toolangi and for some it was the first time that they had attended one of our retreats.  We had a wonderful large room to sew in, complete with great lighting, big windows and a wonderfully warm window.  The ladies were very pleased with our new choice of venue, so much so we have already made a booking for next year.

The location was remote which meant we didn't get to spend a lot of money at a quilt shop or at the local businesses, however it did mean we got A LOT of sewing done.  On friday night Andrea taught us how to make bow tie blocks which had a lot of us take up the challenge, while others got on with completing UFOs, charity quilts and the various group projects they had signed up for.

This didn't mean that there was nothing else to do as some of the ladies went to the CJ Denis Singing Gardens, while a couple of us took advantage of the local trails and went bush walking, others ducked into nearby Yarra Glen for a spot of shopping. 




We also had a visit from Anna's Patchwork Quilt shop, kindly arranged by the committee.

Sergei was our special guest at the retreat.  He had quite the adventure, first he was kidnapped and held for ransom and then in revenge he started pilfering objects such as cough drops and scissors.  He even ate all of Maureen's Cheezels.  I wonder who will join us next year ?

For more photos visit our Flikr Page